Forwards Southern Africa Project 2020

Building the R Community in Southern Africa

Using the Johannesburg satRday as a springboard, Forwards (the R Foundation taskforce for underrepresented groups) plan to deliver a number of workshops and talks in neighbouring countries to help develop the R community in Southern Africa. The events will be lead by Heather Turner, chair of Forwards, in collaboration with local community organisers and will take place in the first half of March 2020.

The add-on events have partial support from the Why R? Foundation, however, we are looking to raise further funds to support Heather and to contribute to the running of these events. Any surplus funds will be used to further support the R community in Africa.

The planned itinerary is outlined below, further links and dates will be added when available.

Windhoek, Namibia (cancelled)

In partnership with the Department of Statistics and Population Studies, University of Namibia:

• Introduction to R for data analysis workshop (1 day)
• Meetup talk on the R Community and resources available for newcomers

The above events have been cancelled, however, a group of organizers has been formed and there are plans to launch a Namibia R User Group at a later date.

Johannesburg, South Africa 

March 5, 2020 

In partnership with R-Ladies Johannesburg:

• Meetup talk on Publishing and Promoting your R Package

This is part of a free meetup on March 5 enabling R-Ladies to meet the satRday keynote speakers. Sign up here.

March 6-7, 2020 

In partnership with satRdays:

• R package development workshop (1 day)
• Conference keynote talk on Diversity and Inclusion in the R Community

Tickets are no longer available for these events.

Manzini, Eswatini (March 11-12, 2020)

In partnership with the recently established Eswatini useR group:

• Introduction to R for data analysis workshop (1 day)
• Meetup talk on the R community and resources available for newcomers

Sign up for this event.

Gaborone, Botswana (March 14, 2020)

In partnership with WiMLDS Gaborone and PyData Botswana:

• Introduction to R workshop (1 day)
• Meetup talk on the R community and resources available for newcomers

The meetup talk will be at the launch event of the Botswana R User Group, held after the R workshop, at the same venue. Participants can choose to come to either event, or both.

Sign up for the R workshop via WiMLDS or PyData. 

Sign up for the R meetup.

The R Community in Africa

The following map shows cities in Africa with R-Ladies groups (purple), R User Groups (blue) or both (blue-grey):

The R community is thriving in South Africa and Joburg satRday 2020 marks the fourth such conference the community has organised. Having Heather Turner as an invited speaker at Joburg satRday 2020 gives Forwards the opportunity to organise events in neighbouring countries where the R community is less established. The events will promote AfricaR, the pan-African network of R users, which has spurred recent growth of the R community in Western and Eastern Africa.

Dr Heather Turner

Dr Turner is a freelance statistical programmer and an Honorary Research Fellow of the Statistics Department at the University of Warwick, UK. In her consultancy work, Heather provides support to people in a range of industries, but particularly the life sciences. Heather has been an R user since 2001 and is co-author of several R packages.

Dr Turner is on the board of the R Foundation and chairs the Forwards taskforce for underrepresented groups in the R community. She is also a co-organizer of R-Ladies Remote.

Photo credits

Photos used in the Banner image:

Top left: Eswatini useR group, by @EswatiniUseR
Top right: R-Ladies at Joburg satRday 2019, by @RLadiesJozi
Bottom left: University of Nambia by Antony2365, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bottom right: Coding the Night Away event in Gaborone, by @WiMLDS_Gaborone